How Do You Stick To Your Career Goals?

Posted on the Chase Stories Blog. After years of fighting for equality in the workplace, women have found their place and now occupy various professional positions in the workplace. Just like men, they’re now in the same play field, with the same resources and opportunities laid out on the table. There are intrinsic factors that work to the advantage of each gender, but there also external factors that are within our control and would put us in the front-line (whether male or female), such as projecting our career path.

To do this, we need to set up some career goals that will play as your guide for where you want to be or what you’re working towards. These goals need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound) and in line with your inner needs and motives for them to make sense to you and for you to even want to achieve them in the first place. Once you’ve set these goals, how do you stick to them?

Develop a Game plan

What’s your game plan? Where do you want to go with your career, and what are you doing to get there? Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!’. And the same notion applies to your career.

What are your highest priorities when it comes to your career? Set goals that relate to your highest priorities, so that everything you do links back to them. And this is where your plan of action comes to play. For instance, apply and go for training that enables you to grow your desired skills.

Maintain motivation

What’s that one thing that makes you wake up in the morning every single day, and go to work or go about with your business? Of course other than the salary at the end of the month. It has to be more that the money, it needs to be something you’re passionate about.

If you’re in a position where you’re not passionate about what you do through-out the day, work the game plan. Create goals that will enable you to do what matters to you.

Avoid analysis paralysis

This is basically the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. When it comes to dealing with our career, women are known to be emotional and over thinkers when it comes to decision making – Recommended Read – Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.

Facebook COO Sandberg examines the dearth of women in major leadership positions, and what women can do to solve the problem, in this provocative book. While acknowledging that women have made great strides in the business world, she states that they still have a long way to go and lays out a plan for women to get there. “I have written this book to encourage women to dream big, forge a path through the obstacles, and achieve their full potential,” she explains. The author’s counsel—gleaned from her own experiences—includes suggestions for increasing self-confidence, particularly in the business world; understanding the role of mentors and how to identify them; building emotional relationships at work; not focusing on being liked; juggling marriage and children with a demanding job; and the importance of taking risks. “Hard work and results should be recognized by others, but when they aren’t, advocating for oneself becomes necessary,” Sandberg speaks out.

Enlist a buddy

Look for a ‘buddy’ or mentor within the environment you’re in, it could be in the same work place or even a different one. It should be;

Someone whose interests and yours are aligned so that you’re not in conflict, because this will contribute greatly to your growth – both personally and professionally.

Someone who will hold your hand, and also hold you accountable for your set goals, so it needs to be someone you respect.

Someone you can share with your their experiences in the workplace and they’re able to guide you based on their experience or knowledge.

Someone who will call you out when you’re tripping – when emotion gets the best of you, when you’re not working towards fulfilling your goals.

Track your progress and never give up

For every goal set, there should be a way to measure it. This makes it easier for you to know whether you’re working towards fulfilling your goals or not. For instance, inform you whether your work plan feeds in to your goals, and if not, how to re-align them.

Last but not least, never give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is passion and inspiration, you can never go wrong. Keep trying until you get it right.

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Kawiria Rincuni (Kawi) is lady with a bright and bubbly personality, who’s passionate about creating social content that positively inspires and impacts people, and most of all, interacting with people in a way that will create more value in their lives.